THE First Minister has given the go-ahead to recruit accountants to work out the cost of a Yes vote but their figures won't be revealed until after the poll.

ALEX Salmond has finally ordered civil servants to calculate the price-tag of independence.

But the First Minister won’t tell Scots the true cost of setting up vital state infrastructure before we go to the polls on September 18.

Instead, the figures will be used as the basis for negotiations with the UK Government in the event of a Yes vote.

Start-up costs have been a key battleground in the referendum debate since a car-crash interview in which Finance Secretary John Swinney refused 13 times to say what they would be.

Critics said this was because the SNP hadn’t done the necessary work to determine the full price.

Now the Scottish Government are advertising a number of “business critical posts” in the civil service calculating the cost of a split from the UK.

The recruitment process is being fast-tracked so staff can start sooner. The advert even says that due to the urgency of the situation, there is no requirement to complete an application form.

One of the advertised roles is “assuring and collating information on financial aspects of constitutional change”.

But yesterday, officials said the results of the calculations would not be published before the referendum. A spokesman said: “The Scottish Government are acting to make sure we are as well prepared as possible to take forward the transition work needed in the event of a vote for independence.

“It is about making sure that existing staff with the right skills are placed in the right jobs so that we can continue to deliver for the people of Scotland.”

Opposition leaders reacted with fury to the news that the work on start-up costs would not be shared with the public.

Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont said: “It is nothing short of reckless asking the people of Scotland to vote for independence when the Scottish Government themselves don’t even know the full costs of what they are proposing.

“The SNP can hire all the experts they like but none of them can answer the basic question of why we would want to spend hundreds of millions recreating departments that already exist and serve us perfectly well as part of the UK.”

Tory leader Ruth Davidson said: “Having been in government for more than seven years, Alex Salmond is only just getting round to hiring staff to work out what it would cost to set up all the new departments and institutions needed for a new state.

“Instead of his usual bluff and bluster, he must be straight with people and tell them how much independence will cost.”

Scottish Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie said: “The nationalists are now in a frantic rush to employ staff to work out the set-up costs for their independence plans.

“This desperate recruitment drive is meaningless unless the SNP Government make public the fruits of their labour.”